Contempt of Congress comes closer in a letter on Valentine’s Day.
The letter begins, “Dear Mr. Attorney General” and then goes downhill.
On February 14th, Darrell Issa, chair of the Congressional Committee on Oversight, sent a seven-page Valentine letter warning Attorney General (AG) Eric Holder that he only has a limited amount of time before being held in contempt of Congress.
Once before, on January 31st Issa had threatened Holder with contempt of Congress if the AG did not turn over all subpoenaed documents relating to the Fast and Furious (F&F) gun smuggling scheme by Thursday, Feb. 9th.
The deadline has passed. Eric Holder’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has not complied with a Congressional subpoena issued four months ago in October.
In the first two paragraphs of his letter, Representative Issa noted Deputy AG, James Cole, had asked Congress to extend the subpoena deadline even further.
Mr. Issa called the Cole request “ironic… that the Department (DOJ) has unreasonably delayed producing these documents to the Committee.”
Congressman Issa then detailed the irony, “On its face, the requested extension demonstrates a lack of good faith. With one exception, the Department has only produced documents responsive to the subpoena on the eve of congressional hearings in which senior Department officials testified. The Department appears to be more concerned with protecting its image through spin control than actually cooperating with Congress.”
Then, in paragraph two, Issa bared Congressional teeth, “We cannot wait any longer for the Department’s cooperation. “As such, please specify a date by which you expect the Department to produce all documents responsive to the subpoena. In addition, please specify a Department representative who will interface with the Committee for production purposes.”
The “Contempt” word appears in the twentieth line. Issa demanded that the DOJ official designated to deliver subpoenaed documents “should also serve as the conduit for dealing with the contempt proceedings, should the Department continue to ignore the Committee’s subpoena.”
On page six, Representative Issa delivers damning evidence of evidence, “Furthermore, it is difficult to understand why the Department took nearly a year to produce documents the Committee had already received from Whistleblowers in early 2011.”
The last paragraph states, “It is impossible to end our investigation with the current level of cooperation we are receiving from the Department (DOJ). Rather, the Committee requires the full cooperation of the Department of Justice. This is not an election year political gotcha game.” (Boyle,2012)
Sounds like the Congressional Committee has finally - at last - reached a limit.
Penalties for Contempt of Congress (2 U.S.C. 192) are a maximum $1000. fine and a year in prison, but Obstruction of Committee Proceedings (18 U.S.C. 1505) can be fines and imprisonment for not more than 5 years – or, if the offense involves terrorism, prison for not more than 8 years.
Since Tucson District Border Agent, Brian Terry was shot with an F&F weapon, smuggled with ATF collusion to a Mexican drug cartel, and in possession of an FBI infiltrated “Rip Crew”, the question of Terrorism might even be reasonable.
Boyle, M. (2012). The Daily Caller. Issa takes step toward holding Holder in contempt of Congress. http://dailycaller.com/2012/02/14/issa-takes-step-toward-holding-holder-in-contempt-of-congress/
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